Night Two Hundred And Seventy Eight
Age 1992
'Looks like we're out of options.' The voice sighed.
"I'm kind of lost weird voice."
'Don't be. Just know I'm taking over now.'
"What-" Hero's body was suddenly wrapped up in a blanket of darkness which seemed to form into the outline of a large squid for a brief moment catching Jester and Hide off guard.
"What is this..." Jester frowned. "This isn't Row... Who the hell is coming out-"
In a large crack the egg began to hatch and break as a form began to slowly crawl out of it. It wasn't Hero. This wasn't like a possession either. It was almost impossible to guess what happened in that darkness. Standing out of it though was a young sixteen year old girl with snow white hair and ruby red eyes. She was missing an arm much like Hero was, and she was in his torn up clothing and injured just as much as he had been. It was like Hero's gender just reversed and yet...
It was clear this wasn't Hero...
"Hmm..." The girl hummed staring at herself in the mirror. "The change didn't get rid of all his features. How odd."
"Who the hell are you."
"Me." The girl turned giving a sly smile as the darkness began to form into many black tendrils. "Oh. I'm Eve. Hello."
***
The Void...
"W... What the hell?" Hero asked with wide eyes looking around. "How the hell did I get here?"
Hero Law, now stood inside of the massive red lake that looked almost like an ocean of blood. The lake had seemingly gone up and covered up too his very knees now. One moment he had been in the real world and in the next he now found himself in this strange bizarre world in which dreams went to die.
The shattered moon hung in the sky.
It reminded him of Hero Otoko, who had blown it up in a single strike.
Thoughts of the Seraphin went through his mind. Hero Otoko was like the tallest mountain. Something that peaked past the realm of man and began to step into the land of the Gods, Dragons, and Angels. A force of pure power. The only thing that out matched his sheer raw power being the ever lonely feeling that someone who got their world killed must feel. The lonely road that a failure who never got back up must walk.
"What are you doing here..." A voice sighed making Hero jumped.
"Ahh!" Hero leapt around only to feel a little embarrassed when he saw Row Law standing behind him. Row was in his kid form still giving him the image of a simple ten year old boy. Next to him was Yume the construct Row made, who happened to be the previous Crest user, and brother to Piero. "Why are you here?"
"I live here dumbass! The better question is... Why are you here." Row asked.
Hero scratched the back of his head with his right arm sheepishly. "I... Kind of am as lost as you are- Wait a second. My arm?"
"What about it?" Row sighed.
Hero stared down at his right arm only to discover that it was perfectly fine despite being in its human state. Same with both his legs. He stared at the palm of his hand but his Equation was gone. "My... My Equation is-"
"Relax." Row sighed shaking his head. "You still have your Equation. As for why your body is fine. Thats simple. You're not in it."
"What?"
"You really don't get it?" Row asked raising an eyebrow. "You're not in your body right now. Normally you've actually teleported into the Void but right now your soul is the only thing thats here. Your body is still on Earth. Thats why I asked you how you got here? I'm not in your body and neither are you, so why did you leave the body?"
"I... I don't think I had a choice..." Hero frowned biting his lip. "There was... A voice."
"...A Voice? You mean another one other than us?" Yume asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah." Hero nodded.
"I thought as much." Row sighed. "I have no idea who it could be... That can't be good." Row frowned. "Was it God? He's placed his soul into us a few times."
"No. This was a girl voice. Someone else." Hero said shaking his head.
"A Girl?" Yume frowned. "I can't think of any woman who could connect to us... Maybe..."
"You know someone?" Row asked turning to look at his doll.
"Maybe Nightmare the first user of the Dream Crest..." Yume shrugged. "But she's dead."
"I don't know if it will help." Hero sighed throwing his hands behind his head as he plopped down into the red liquid allowing it to wash over his lower body and warm him up with the blood like liquid. "This Voice. I think she might be the one who has been lending me power." Hero stated. "I've been borrowing their power. I thought it was the world and to an extent I think it might still be them, but I think it can also go deeper than that as well. Something lower... Something that doesn't even exist. No. Something that shouldn't exist."
"Are you... Are you saying that this person might be connected with the Squid?" Yume asked frowning.
"Its just a thought I have." Hero said giving a small shrug. "I could be wrong and... And honestly I hope I'm wrong. Still. That power is addicting to an extent."
Row also frowned for a moment as he seemed to go deep into his thoughts trying to process what he was hearing. "I see... Thats not good then... I don't know who could possibly be invading our body... We need to do something about it though."
"You're going to actually help me?" Hero asked with mild suspicion as he eyed the little boy up and down a frown on his face. "And I should trust you because..."
"Do you really have a choice..." He asked flatly.
"...You... Raise an excellent point." Hero hummed nodding his head as he let out a sigh folding his arms. "I'm in a bit of a crisis situation here I guess. I need my body back... Who could have stolen it... That woman... Who the hell is she."
"I'm as lost as you." Row sighed shaking his head. "I have no idea who's in your body or who took it over. All I know is one moment I felt some people going through the void and the next I was unable to connect to you."
"So she managed to even kick you out huh? Okay..." Hero's arms were still crossed as he closed his eyes and began to think. "So. Neither of us can connect to my body. Someone is in my body, Jester may or may not be out to kill me, and Hide is super scary... I have no clue how to get out of this situation!" Hero yelled throwing his arms into the air as he covered his head with his hands and shook himself wildly.
Row snorted. "So you're totally useless huh. You're lucky my plan hasn't finished yet otherwise I'd just take the body over myself. However thankfully for you I still have some unfinished issues that I need to deal with in here before I leave. Some things came up so I'm not quiet ready to leave this place just yet. So I'll help you get your body back only so I can at least take it over again later."
"I knew you loved me-"
"Shut the hell up."
"Yeah, yeah dad." Hero stood up throwing his arms behind his head. "So. Whats the deal with the water levels having rose up?"
"Thats..." Row looked down at the red ground placing his hand into it and pulling some of the water out before dripping it down to the floor once more. "Thats a good question. I guess you can go ahead and blame yourself."
"What?"
"This place is connected to you. This is our shared Void. Not a normal Void but the one where our Dreams go. Our Dream Crest is connected to it. Because of the fact that you currently have the strongest connection to the Crest, having the body that holds the full Crest, this is your Void. A land of blood rain. All your pain and misery that you simply wash away ends up here. Lately the rain managed to stop thankfully."
"Oh... I see... So... Do you actually know how to get my body back?"
"To an extent." Row sighed throwing his arms behind his head and turning his back to Hero. "But... Well its a bit dangerous."
"Sadly I'd say it'd be weird if it wasn't dangerous. My life is really messed up isn't it..." Hero sighed folding his arms once more. "Hows this done then. What do I need too do?"
"Well. To start with..." Row said slowly pointing his hand to a scene in the distance.
Hero followed and felt his blood run cold when he saw what he was looking at. It had suddenly appeared from out of nowhere seemingly just being created.
Hundreds of miles in the air the shattered moon began to break apart casting down a dark pitch black moon light onto the void. In the sky dark red clouds began to form as it began to rain more red liquid down covering Hero, Row, and Yume, as the water levels began to slowly rise. All around them hundreds of buildings were around them forming an almost city like look that seemed to be in ruins. And at the very, very edge, or this strange city, that existed within this place, was what Row pointed at.
A large rusty chain fence hung around it.
Past the fence they rested. Hundreds of grave stones all with many names on them all around it. Large shovels dug into the ground and there was a single stone that stood out the words 'Hero Law' written across them.
"Well to start with Hero Law." Row said again slowly lowering his hand. "You have to die." He said his words echoing around inside of Hero's head.
***
Oleander City...
"This... Is so unfair. They just keep spamming their attacks at me over and over again... Oh well. At least I'm having fun." She closed her eyes as a faint red aura seemed to seep out of her body swirling around her and forming the image of a cat for a moment. It seemed to crackle almost like a form of red lightning as she twitched her fingers. "Okay. Lets see what we're working with right now." She announced. "Crimson Blade."
Ken jumped forward swinging her left arm out as the red aura seemed to explode out of her forming a large red great sword that swung out. Irene was in front of her but the girl created a wall of ice to block the attack. Or at least that had been the plan but seconds later Ken's sword proved to be to strong slicing through the ice wall and splitting the corrupted girl right in half sending Irene's upper half flying. Ken didn't have a second to spare spinning around and raising her right arm up facing Kitsune as she fired a red beam. Kitsune slammed her hands out sending a beam of fire back the two beams clashing together and exploding creating a wave of steam. Cloud jumped through the steam using it to bend and twirl around him but seconds later Ken jumped through it slamming her knee into his stomach making him spit up a glob of blood and sending him flying back.
"Geez. Girl hits hard." Kitsune hummed before a smirk came onto her face. "Still... I think I can win with this." Blood seeped out of her finger tips forming a set of large blood red gauntlets forged from the iron in her blood. Seconds later they ignited with pure flames as her tails crashed out. She was on Ken in mere seconds throwing out a powerful right hook. Ken countered with a punch of her own but it wasn't even a question of power Kitsune's arm shattering Ken's arm entirely and snapping it.
"D... Damn it..." Ken jumped away grabbing her broken arm and snapping it in place. "T... That really hurt you know."
"That was the point." Kitsune yelled slamming her hands down as the blood flowed out like a whip catching on fire. Ken stepped out of the way at the last second the flaming blood whip moving so fast it ripped the very fabric of space apart leaving a large black gash in the air that began to slowly seal shut.
"Holy s##t how strong are you!" Ken said with wide eyes.
"Strong enough." Kitsune smiled. "And sadly I'm nowhere near my power level."
"What do you mean..."
"I was far stronger in my actual body. This one works well enough though."
"I see... So... What if I told you I could fix you guys." Ken announced with a smirk when she saw the shocked looks on Kitsune, Irene, and Cloud. "Even you to Hella, or I guess other me."
"W... What are you talking about." Kitsune frowned.
Hella sighed. "Oh I get it. You're talking about He- Law right. You're talking about Law's healing Crest."
"Thats right." Ken announced smugly. "He can heal people. He could likely fix yourselves upback to who you used to be."
"Is... Is that true..." Kitsune frowned.
"Yeah." Ken said nodding her head. She could tell Kitsune was thinking about her words. "He could easily fix you guys-"
"Even so." Kitsune folded her arms. "If all of us got our old power back we'd be able to crush Otoko for sure... I think... What would it take for that to happen."
"Oh..." Ken gave a lazy shrug. "You'd have to talk to Hero. But if you all stop being evil I could put in a good word with him I guess. It'd be better to have you guys on our side after all. So why not just stop this-"
"She's lying." Hella said shaking her head. "Or at least... She is lying now. Ken's right. Hero's Crest could easily fix the damage done to us Kitsune. Unlike me or you he has the real deal. That said. He himself has no control over it. Ken was just stalling for time so she could gather more energy."
"Damn... Sold out by myself..."
"Dirty girl." Kitsune hissed firing forward.
Ken gave a smile. "Thankfully. I stalled for long enough." She sliced her hand up into the air like a claw as all her fingers glowed and sent out five slashes. Kitsune would have been sliced into five pieces if not for Irene jumping in front of her. Irene was simply reduced to a bloody mess in a single slash. "Crap-"
Kitsune jumped past Irene's gore and slammed her hand into Ken's face sending Ken flying across the ground. Ken rolled over the stone floor and landed back on her feet bringing her hands up as a red beam of energy began to form.
"Take this-"
"Eventful Impact."
From out of nowhere a man with black messy hair, and a silver strand in it, and bright silver eyes, slammed into Ken slamming his foot into her stomach sending Ken flying.
"H... Hero Otoko?" Kitsune, Cloud, and Irene all said with wide eyes as the man folded his arms.
Ken slowly tried to pull her body up finding Hero Otoko had joined the battle now standing in front of her his arms crossed.
"D... Double crap..."